


An Incomplete List Of How Kuro Amused Himself, Held Captive By Genichiro

by PoisonHemloc



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, drug mention, kuro is being held captive by genichiro, not actually attached to my other fic but meh, this is bullying genichiro: the prologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29091711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonHemloc/pseuds/PoisonHemloc
Summary: Kuro has been recaptured by Genichiro and Wolf is out of commission. And Kuro is upset. So he's gonna annoy Genichiro however he can.
Kudos: 16





	An Incomplete List Of How Kuro Amused Himself, Held Captive By Genichiro

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Mark (who doesn't have an AO3 iirc) for looking up what shrooms look like for me cause. I was writing and didn't wanna break the flow.
> 
> I wanted to write something funny for Sekiro cause it doesn't lend itself to that generally.

“Wolf will be outside of the castle until he wakes up, Lord Kuro.” Kuro just nodded to Emma, frustrated. Wolf was out of commission for an unknown amount of time and he was back in the main keep, where Genichiro was free to harass him for the Dragon’s Heritage. 

Well. He had been a good son, a good noble, a good guest turned prisoner for his entire life. But if Genichiro was going to lock him here again, it was time to finally stop being nice. 

The problem was, he was eleven. Genichiro could- and had- just picked him up and put him down somewhere else when he wanted to. The limit to what he could do when Genichiro could see him was very, very low; the only reason he was still being treated- not nicely, but not badly yet- was because he hadn’t given Genichiro a solid refusal to share the Dragon’s Heritage. He couldn’t get away with something Genichiro could see.

Kuro had been staring into space thinking, but refocused and realized he had been staring at his one spare kimono. He only had one saved from Hirata; his spare was the only one Genichiro had had left from when he was Kuro’s age.

Genichiro had several nice kimono and other fancy sets of clothing he wore rarely, preferring his armor or his more well worn clothing. It was all in his room, but that was near this room Kuro was locked in. And there was a fast way to the closest courtyard between the two spots. Kuro nodded slowly as his plan came together; he needed to wait until the next morning, when Genichiro left to tend to the matters of Ashina. 

Genichiro had left his room ten minutes prior; Kuro had heard him stomping away. Now he crept to the closed door, looking around and listening for anyone nearby, and carefully tried the door.

Unlocked; who would break into the ruler of Ashina’s room? Except his young cousin he was holding prisoner, of course. Kuro checked the two larger chests in the room for which one held the fancy clothing and frowned when he pulled most of it out.  _ This must have a false bottom _ Kuro chewed his lip but he could possibly look into it when he came back; he didn’t want to risk Genichiro coming back suddenly and finding him in here. 

No one outside the room; he had just the small armful of clothing he could carry, nothing with incredibly intricate embroidery that would cause despair for the servants who would end up washing this, and he hurried down to the courtyard. No one around here, either, but it had rained recently and Kuro dropped everything in the mud and jumped on it before quickly regathering it, wrapping it in his hand me down kimono to keep mud off the floor of the castle, and running back to Genichiro’s room.

No one around still; Kuro carefully opened the door and slid inside, putting the kimono keeping the muddy things off the floor next to him. How to get into the false bottom on the chest?

There was a panel on one side he could slide off, and a drawer slid out. There were just jars in here; a couple were sake jars, and two smaller jars with dried… mushrooms? Probably, inside. He had no good ideas to mess with them right now, he could leave them until an idea occurred to him. He replaced the drawer and panel, then just dumped the rest of the clothing into the chest and closed it, sneaking back out with his muddy kimono that he’d have to clean quickly. 

Luckily it only took a few minutes to get the mud off his; he’d tried to keep it cleaner than Genichiro’s things. He didn’t know how long it would take for Genichiro to discover what had happened, but he was both the probable candidate for any issues and the only person Genichiro couldn’t threaten or really punish, now, since he seemed to think that he needed to be vaguely friendly towards Kuro to get the Heritage.

Two days later Kuro woke up early to a strangled scream of rage and smiled to himself; There was something important with some of the samurai who paid homage to Ashina later today. Genichiro forced himself to be a morning person, and must have just checked his nice clothing. The mud might have been partly dry already.

Loud footsteps; Kuro sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, forcing himself to not smile as there was a single hard knock at the door before Genichiro walked in. 

“Lord Genichiro. What is wrong?” He looked more upset than normal.

“Have you left this room.” Oh, he was going to interrogate Kuro instead of answer like he used to. 

“Yes, to go to the kitchens and to help Lady Emma yesterday. And to visit Lord Isshin, the day before.” Isshin couldn’t directly oppose his grandson, but he had all but told Kuro he was willing to help Kuro maintain his freedom. 

“And that is it.”

“Of course, Lord Genichiro. I am not allowed to leave the castle and have no wish to talk with the Ashina retainers who have been yelling at me.” Directing him somewhere else might help, too; he did not like the retainers harassing Kuro like he had been. 

He snarled rather than respond and stalked out. Kuro rose, closed the door Genichiro had left open, walked back to the center of the room and then let himself giggle. 

Isshin showed up later that day.

“Since we talked two days ago, I thought I would stop by to talk about what we talked about.” Kuro got the look he gave.

“Lord Genichiro wanted to make sure I was not the person who threw his nice clothing in the mud. And jumped on it. And replaced it in his chest.”

“And it was not you, because we were talking all day that day. About… I think we were talking about Lord Takeru and Tomoe, when they were here.” Kuro nodded; he knew enough from the journals Isshin had given him to fake that conversation. “And today… I think we are avoiding Genichiro as much as possible. And Emma, with her new concoction that tastes like cold spit.” He barked a laugh and rose suddenly. “Come, Kuro, let’s go hide.”

“No one over here.” Kuro darted across the courtyard, Isshin moving more slowly behind him. No one was actually following them, but it was fun, pretending to avoid invisible pursuers and actually avoiding anyone who would report seeing them to Genichiro or Emma. 

“What’s over there?” The bridge that would go across this gap was down right now, normal around the castle, but there was a building visible on the far side. 

“The dungeons. We are not going down there, not with what Genichiro has happening in them.” Kuro knew better than to press when Isshin used that tone. 

“Wait. Did you hear that?” Kuro frowned and shook his head; Isshin was grinning. “Genichiro and his worsening anger issues, I heard him from down here. He must be looking for you. We can’t go to the Serpent Shrine but we can go to Takeru’s grave, he might think to look there eventually.”

It was Emma who found them at the grave and the weird fenced off crater behind it. She was never angry at Kuro, but there was a definite scowl when she saw Isshin.

“Lord Isshin, I know you don’t like medicine but I need you to take it.”

“If I liked drinking cold spit, Emma,-”

“I don’t care, it’s keeping you alive right now. I can add something to change the taste if it bothers you that much, but I need you to tell me that first, Lord Isshin, rather than let me run around the castle all day looking for you.” She glanced down at Kuro. “Thank you for helping me today, keeping an eye on Lord Isshin.” Both lords nodded at her tone; it was a good excuse when Genichiro found him. 

Genichiro did find them, halfway back to the watchtower Isshin was staying in at Emma’s insistence.

“Divine Heir-”

“Has been watching me under Lady Emma’s orders today, Genichiro.” Isshin was the only person present he wouldn’t argue with. “And is still supervising me, apparently, since Emma is busy and doesn’t think I can be trusted by myself.”

Kuro pretended not to hear the muttered “he can’t” from Emma as he continued walking next to Isshin rather than face Genichiro; he’d seen the man clench his fists, but he didn’t say anything else, just watched them. Kuro heard him leave after they turned a corner and Isshin breathed out.

“He’s getting worse.” Isshin might have forgotten Kuro was there as he addressed Emma. “I’m surprised he didn’t snap at someone.”

“You stepped down when that cough was worse, he might think you will take over again since you’re not as visibly sick.” Emma chewed at her lip, looking behind them like she expected Genichiro to reappear. “I’m sure if it was just Kuro and I he would have.”

“Looks like you’re staying with me for the rest of the day.” Isshin laughed, but the attempt to improve Kuro’s spirits failed.    


* * *

Kuro had spent the next day with Isshin as well, though mostly just in his watchtower; he acted fine but Kuro was fairly certain it was just acting. And therefore was not surprised when Emma, escorting him back to his room, quietly asked him to stay put the next day, so Isshin wouldn’t have the double burden of being exhausted and hiding it. 

That left him free to cause problems for Genichiro, instead. 

That was him, leaving the castle, Kuro could tell from the lookout platform. He hurried back inside and back to Genichiro’s room, checking to make sure no one was nearby. 

There were two large bookshelves, filled to the point a few books were sitting sideways on top of the others. Kuro started inspecting them quickly rather than mess with the chests again, and felt the shock of recognition; some of the books held Lord Takeru’s neat hand declaring the title. He grabbed the ones he saw, scanning quickly, to make sure he found them all; he had been going to cause problems but holes in a bookshelf would have to do, he needed these. There was too much about the Dragon’s Heritage he still didn’t know; even if he wasn’t causing problems for Genichiro he would steal these. 

No one outside the room again, he was lucky Genichiro preferred to stay in an otherwise disused part of the castle. He hurried back to his room-

-and met Emma, standing in the middle of the floor and frowning when she made eye contact with him and his guilty pile of stolen books.

“I can explain-”

“You’re harassing Genichiro back?”

“...yeah.”

“Well. If you wish to have a respite tomorrow, I will be making salves all day and could use the company.” Emma nodded and went to leave as though Kuro wasn’t still standing there holding books that had not come from the castle’s only library. “Also, Lord Kuro, I’m not sure if you noticed, but the altar in this room is hollow; there’s a small latch on the far side that opens the back. Just a nice way to save on the costs, I think.” And with that she left the room and Kuro put the books down carefully next to the altar with Takeru’s old incense burner on it. 

There was a latch that he hadn’t noticed; once pressed, part of the old wooden frame swung out, and there was more than enough room to hide the books.

Emma was escorting Kuro back to his room after a long day spent helping grind ingredients for the salve Emma had been stockpiling when they turned a corner and saw Genichiro again. He scowled but stomped past.

“...He must have been in your room, I shouldn’t be surprised he was there without asking.” Emma was frowning as she and Kuro began walking again. 

“I wonder why.” Kuro made eye contact with Emma; he was thinking about the stolen books. 

“We’ll see- just to make a mess it seems.” The library was not opened; the dust on the panels hiding it must have shown it currently disused as Kuro finished reading through the other books he had. His spare things were on the ground and their table upended, the incense burner was irritatingly knocked askew on the table, but the altar was still latched shut.

“I won’t give him the Dragon’s Heritage so he’s going to just mess with my room?” Kuro was grinning when he said it; Emma looked at him across the low table as they put it back up.

“Apparently. I’ll ask Lord Isshin to talk with him. Just because someone threw his clothing in the dirt does not mean he can vandalize your room.” Emma sounded completely serious but winked at Kuro as they made sure nothing was missing. 

* * *

There was a guard in front of Genichiro’s room now, that was irritating. Kuro was lucky he was looking the other way when he crept over and had been able to fling himself back around the corner. 

He couldn’t break in, not with a guard there. And while Genichiro must have known it was him- everyone who knew must have known it was him, who else would poke at an angry tiger except the person who couldn’t be clawed?- he was still trying to convince Kuro to share the Heritage and directly calling him out would hand Kuro a good reason to directly deny him, rather than the soft deflects he had been giving to keep himself in the castle where Wolf would be able to find him, rather than be confined in the dungeon or who knew where until he broke.

Kuro instead wandered over to one of the dojos. Normally one of the older samurai was here, or Isshin, but not today apparently.

What was here was a small pile of paperwork in the outer area. That didn’t seem normal, but Kuro couldn’t be sure; he hadn’t been in the main body of Ashina castle for a full week yet. 

These were… tax documents, probably, lists of what money was needed where and which retainer was in charge of what. Nothing he wanted to deface; this might cause a small issue for Genichiro but be a large headache for someone else. Kuro started to put it back and stopped.

He was here because of Genichiro. He was deliberately irritating Genichiro as his only means of expressing his feelings at being stuck here solely for the Heritage he had been born with. But only one or two retainers- mostly older men, Isshin’s age- were polite to him. Several were following Genichiro in harassing him, though they largely didn’t hold themselves to his bare minimum standard of politeness and Kuro had been almost thrown out of a room before, the samurai assured that he couldn’t hurt Kuro and willing to do whatever he felt was needed to get the Heritage for Genichiro. Kuro was trying to make Genichiro’s life worse, yes. But he didn’t need to reign in what little issues he was causing to help the retainers. 

Fifteen minutes later the stack of papers were back in the little alcove they had been left in. The random splashes of paint disguised names and words that had been carefully changed with a delicate brush, something that only might be noticed after whoever had left these had panicked and tried to copy everything salvageable to clean paper. 

Kuro was helping Emma as she carefully boiled… something that smelled spicy and strange. Isshin was watching both of them, making faces with every new ingredient she added, but looked up suddenly. It was only a moment before Kuro and Emma heard the footsteps as well; it was probably Genichiro.

The operatory door was open; he saw Kuro as soon as he turned the corner in the hallway and sped up.

“Do you  _ think _ what you did was _ acceptable. _ ” Oh he was  _ upset _ . Kuro backed away from Emma to keep her out of the line of fire but Isshin was on his feet and everyone froze to hear him unsheath a katana that Kuro hadn’t realized he had brought. 

“Genichiro. We have talked about how you have treated Kuro.” Oh Isshin was upset too. And sick or not, the thought of him fighting was enough for Genichiro to try and reign himself in.

“All of the tax information for the western villages was defaced. And the list of needs for the army, and the retainers who have been seeing to the mining around the valley. I don’t know who anyone else who would cover everything in paint-”

“We have six new members of the court from the western villages, two of them are heirs to samurai families that are taxed more heavily. And I’m guessing the documents were left near the dojo, again, when they are not supposed to leave the records room for long periods of time, because you have not been harsh to Nobuaki about tidying up after himself and he will leave documents wherever he was when he decides he needs sake.” Genichiro’s hands clenched and unclenched as he and Isshin stared each other down, then he nodded curtly and stalked back out.

Isshin sighed and replaced his katana. “Whoever destroyed those papers caused easily two months’ worth of work and an inspection of the western villages that Genichiro does not have the manpower for right now. Hopefully he will be more concerned with that issue than harassing you, Kuro.” Kuro caught the look;  _ no more serious damage, please _ . “But I’ve told him before he needs to be more strict with Nobuaki. The man cannot grasp that you cannot leave important documents sitting on the ground next to the dojo. Especially with uppity country samurai coming to the castle with orders to lessen their father’s taxes.”

“Lord Isshin, I thought you were very proud you were an uppity country samurai. I distinctly remember having a conversation with you where you expressed your dislike for anyone claiming to be a samurai from a larger city.” Emma was grinning, gently teasing to diffuse the tension; Isshin barked a laugh and sat back down. 

“I am a country samurai. These children can barely be considered samurai with how much they come here needing to learn. They only know how to make more work for everyone else.”

* * *

Kuro was always welcome in the kitchens. He liked making sweets, and while the Ashina retainers were awful, most of the castle’s servants were friendly. And willing to let him take empty sake jars when he saw them suddenly, a plan already forming. Most of the younger servants, newer servants, disliked Genichiro; the older and high ranking servants just sounded sad if they talked about him. And while most of them must have known Kuro was behind the various inconveniences Genichiro had suffered, no one said anything.

Kuro had to wait until very early the next morning, sneaking down to the stables with the empty jars. There were very few horses here now, though the stables were large enough for dozens of them; to Kuro’s knowledge, they’d never been full, but had come close when many country retainers had come to the castle years ago. 

Gyoubu Oniwa was the most frequent person here who wasn’t one of the servants; he devoted more time to Onikage than to himself. And he had just taken her out to the castle gate, his normal job.

Kuro had left his kimono in his room for this, to try and keep it clean. And now he was creeping around as the servants who had helped Gyoubu outfit Onikage left to have a break. And here were the other horses here, doing horse things.

And Kuro only had to wait a few minutes before he was able to fill the jars with something that was  _ not _ sake, though he was sure Isshin thought it was close to sake made outside of Ashina, and ran back to the castle.

He crept around the corner to check Genichiro’s room this morning; no soldier outside it, since it had been a few days of nothing and the man was probably needed elsewhere. Kuro walked up to the door carefully, listened at it for a second, then put the jars down so he could try the door without dropping or spilling anything-

-and jumped a foot when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He whirled around, trying to find a lie to placate Genichiro, but it was Isshin, grinning.

“Kuro, bringing more sake to your overworked cousin?” 

“I think he might need it, yes, Lord Isshin. This isn’t as strong as Ashina sake, so he might be able to enjoy it more before he gets drunk.” Isshin’s grin grew a little and he opened Genichiro’s door for Kuro. 

“One day he may think to lock this door. Do you know where he hides his sake, Kuro, or do I have to stop pretending I don’t know?”

“No, I know where it is.” Kuro brought the jars inside and quickly got the panel off the chest and the secret drawer open. “Lord Isshin, I was going to bring these to you, in case they help your recovery.” Kuro saw the grin flicker for a moment, but chose not to say anything as he pulled jars out of their hiding place and carefully arranged the new ones in the same spots.

“I was hoping for your company so Emma won’t hover around me all day today, if you were planning on bringing them now.” Kuro nodded and gathered the stolen jars, heading out of the room as Isshin closed the door and following him down the hall. 

Isshin looked both ways when they entered his watchtower, then knelt and removed a floorboard that hadn’t looked loose. “Emma found the other hiding place, she doesn’t think I should be drinking right now.” All of the jars but one were stowed away, then Isshin grabbed a pair of cups and filled them, handing one over to Kuro. Kuro usually drank watered down sake, if he was given any; this definitely wasn’t, but Isshin nodded at him.

It tasted fine but the aftertaste was  _ awful _ . Isshin laughed at the face he made.

“Now that you’ve tried real sake. What was in those jars you gave Genichiro?” 

“Um. Well. I went down to the stables this morning-” Kuro was cut off by Isshin’s laugh; this wasn’t the single bark of laughter he usually heard, Isshin was bent over laughing until he had to struggle to breathe, which caused Kuro to look at him in alarm and start to get up but he waved him back down. 

“I remember doing something similar when I was Genichiro’s age. I didn’t drink the horse piss,” was added to Kuro’s questioning look, “but one of my friends was being obnoxious about getting his hands on ‘better quality’ sake and I was sick of listening to him.”

“...did he say anything?”

“He insisted it was good quality sake until I told him what I did and showed him the original jar and then I got chased up a roof and stayed there overnight until the Nogamis ran him off for me. Drank his entire jar of sake while I was up there too, it was probably less alcoholic than the horse piss.” Isshin laughed again and refilled his cup. “I always had a sword with me from then until Emma got upset I had a little cough.” 

“In case-”

“In case he tried to run me up another roof. I always was and still am better with a sword than he is. I won’t tell you who, though, so you don’t lose all respect for him.” Isshin drained and poured another cup. “If you had any, with how he’s taken to following Genichiro.”

* * *

“What are you watching for?” Kuro didn’t startle; he knew Emma must have noticed that he kept glancing out the window from the operatory where he was helping make salves again.

“I’m watching to see if Genichiro has left yet.” Emma didn’t care about him harassing Genichiro; Kuro had a new plan today. 

“He was going to be busy all day with a couple of samurai from the southern part of the country. Defenses, money, that kind of thing. I do get to hear about what’s going on even though I don’t help.” She added after Kuro’s look.

“Do you mind if I slip out for a minute?”

“I will come.”

Emma was very quiet, following Kuro to Genichiro’s room that again was unguarded. “He must not have tried the sake yet.” Emma frowned at him; Kuro shook his head and mouthed “later” as he carefully opened the door.

“No need to wait for later, Lord Kuro. No one is close enough here normally. What did you do?” and she laughed, covering her mouth with her sleeve, when Kuro explained. “So why are we here today?”

“I had an idea for something he will notice.” Kuro had opened the chest with normal clothing and pulled out a pair of hakama and then a needle and thread he had borrowed from Isshin. “If his seams are all wrong-”

“At least he won’t think you’re okay with being held captive.” Emma nodded and grabbed a handful of clothing. “Did you bring another needle? No? That’s fine, I know where his is.” Emma rifled around in the chest for a moment and emerged with a neat case that held a handful of needles and several small spools of thread. She settled to working on a haori as Kuro started working on the hakama. 

Emma managed to mess with several haori and kimono in the time it took Kuro to hem up the one hakama, hemming it up further and adding darts in random places. She caught his look as they replaced the altered clothing neatly in it’s chest.

“I helped fix a lot of his stuff growing up. He burned a lot of things and Isshin wanted to repair what he had rather than get new things since there were always new holes in his stuff. We let a lot of his stuff down so he wouldn’t have to talk to the tailor, too.”

Kuro was already helping Emma the next day when Genichiro started to storm in, fists clenched, then abruptly looked to one side and spun on his heel and stomped off. Kuro frowned until Isshin walked into view from his rooms.

“He doesn’t want me to yell at him again. Is there a reason he’s upset today, or was this normal?” Isshin raised an eyebrow at Kuro, who handed back the little pocket of fabric with Isshin’s needle and thread. 

“I think some of his clothing was hemmed up yesterday while he was busy, Lord Isshin.” 

“His favorite haori doesn’t fit anymore, someone put darts in it and it’s too small now. Of course he could have simply pulled the threads out since they weren’t done to stay any length of time, but yelling at Kuro is obviously the better choice.”

Isshin nodded sagely and grinned. “I’ll be here for the rest of today, then. Maybe he’ll come back, and we can suggest that.”

* * *

It was still stressful to talk to Genichiro. The way he loomed, twitched, and just gave off the general impression that he was restraining himself from grabbing Kuro and threatening him was nerve-racking even though Kuro knew he couldn’t be hurt. 

But while it was unwise to poke and prod at Genichiro- Kuro knew that, Emma and Isshin both knew that as they encouraged him- it was the only measure of control Kuro had, so he took advantage.

Wolf would probably wake up soon; Emma had said he was doing better every weekly visit, just not conscious yet. Kuro could wait for him, and push Genichiro slightly closer to whatever edge he was on in the hopes he would fall over and Wolf could get past him quickly. 


End file.
